Speakers

Carlos M. Duarte is the Tarek Ahmed Juffali Research Chair in Red Sea Ecology at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and Executive Director of the Global Coral R&D Accelerator Platform. He held academic positions in Spain, Australia, Norway and Denmark, and served as President of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (2007-2010). Author of over 900 scientific papers, Duarte develops ocean-based solutions to global challenges, including climate change, and rebuild the abundance of marine life. He has been ranked as the top marine biologist and the 12th most influential climate scientist in the world.

Christian Pho Duc is the CTO at Smartenergy Group AG and the Vice Chair of the Renewable Hydrogen Workstream at Solar Power Europe. He graduated as a Physicist and an Engineer from Munich and Cambridge University. Christian has accumulated 25 years working experience in Semiconductors (Siemens, IBM, G&D, Infineon Technologies), Renewable Energies & Hydrogen (Solyndra, Nanosolar, Smartenergy) and Electric Mobility (Torqeedo) in various management positions.

Global sector lead for Energy and Natural Resources and Global co-lead for Climate and Sustainability at Oliver Wyman. I have been with Oliver Wyman for 8 years, having been previously been the founding partner of the Corven Group an Energy Advisory and Investment firm. My client focus is on themes of Energy transition and finance, operational risk and performance transformation.

Prith Banerjee is Chief Technology Officer at ANSYS, a leader in engineering simulation. Prior to that, he was CTO of Schneider Electric, CTO of ABB, Managing Director of R&D at Accenture, and Director of HP Labs. Previously he spent 20 years in academia as Professor, Chairman and Dean at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University.

He has founded two companies, AccelChip and Binachip.

He has served on the Board of Cray, CUBIC, Turntide, and Anita Borg Institute, and the Technical Advisory Boards of Ambit, Atrenta, Calypto, Cypress, Ingram Micro, Virsec, and Ampere. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM and IEEE. He is the author of more than 350 papers and a book entitled INNOVATION FACTORY.

He received a B.Tech. in electronics engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana.

Rhian oversees all National Grid’s ESG activities. This includes sustainability and how we are reducing our emissions, our investment in the communities we serve and how we support and develop our people. Prior to this, Rhian was responsible for corporate affairs activities on behalf of National Grid Ventures (NGV), National Grid’s commercial arm which invests in green technologies such as renewable energy. Before joining NGV, Rhian oversaw all corporate affairs activities on behalf of National Grid’s UK regulated businesses and led the Corporate Affairs support for the RIIO 2 price control. Rhian joined National Grid back in 2017, to lead our UK & EU Public Affairs and Policy team; managing senior relationships across Whitehall and Westminster on strategic issues like Brexit, nationalisation and transport and heat decarbonisation.

Before joining National Grid, Rhian was the Director of Infrastructure at the CBI, spearheading their campaigns to boost investment in infrastructure, the low-carbon economy and construction. Having joined the CBI in 2006, she helped to deliver the CBI’s ground-breaking report on climate change in 2007, which helped shift the perception of the role business can play in the low-carbon economy. After this she set up and led the CBI’s climate change team before becoming Director of Infrastructure.

Rhian spent five years in Beijing, where she worked for the European Union Chamber of Commerce providing a bridge between European Business and the Chinese government, and a year working in Taiwan.

Dr. Samir J. Serhan is chief operating officer for Air Products. He has global responsibility for the company’s day-to-day operational business and project execution, with profit and loss (P&L) accountability for the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa, and the Middle East and India regions. Dr. Serhan also leads the Global Engineering, Manufacturing, Technology and Equipment organization and associated equipment businesses, as well as the company’s global Sustainability and Operational Excellence functions.

Dr. Serhan joined Air Products in 2016 as executive vice president leading the Technology, Engineering, Project Execution, Procurement, Manufacturing, Construction and Start-up organizations, as well as the company’s equipment businesses. Over the following years, his role continued to expand to include responsibility for all large projects, the company’s business in the Middle East, Americas Operations, and HyCO franchises and stand-alone plants. Dr. Serhan was appointed chief operating officer in 2020, assuming full P&L responsibility for the Americas region. His role expanded in the following years to include Global Product Offerings, the India commercial organization and Kochi plant operations, Global Operational Excellence and Sustainability organizations, and the Europe and Africa and Asia businesses.

Prior to joining Air Products, Dr. Serhan was employed by Praxair, Inc. as president, Global HyCO. From 2000-2014, he worked in leadership positions in the U.S. and Germany for The Linde Group, culminating in his role as managing director, Linde Engineering. Dr. Serhan began his career at Parsons Corporation, where he held various senior engineering positions.

Dr. Serhan holds a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech. He also was an adjunct professor at The Pennsylvania State University and Temple University.

Scott is currently VP, and the Energy & Industrials CTO at Ansys. In his last role he led as the CTO of Digital Solutions, engineering, and technology at the enterprise level for Baker Hughes. Previously to this, Scott was the COO/CTO of General Electric’s Distributed Power business, leading engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing to support GE’s aero and reciprocating engines businesses. Scott had rejoined GE in 2013 after more than four years in various roles in the energy and O&G industries. He spent time as the VP of Technology, Operations at BP, and before joining BP he was earlier the VP of Engineering & Technology for Drilling and Evaluation at Baker Hughes. Scott has a broad leadership background in technology from multi-physics simulation to robotics, analytics, sensors, asset health monitoring, AI/ML, additive, computer vision, edge analytics and other associated 4-IR technologies. He is particularly keen in helping business leaders with digital transition and focusing on new revenue and service offerings while reducing time to market. Scott has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine, and a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

In his role as President & CEO of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA), he leads the North American team to deliver innovative and integrated solutions that help realize carbon neutrality, improve quality of life, and ensure a safer world. With over 30 years of experience in the industry, he has expertise in both industrial and mining assets, and investment in startup technology companies. Most importantly, he is passionate about advancing the energy transition and achieving MHI’s goal to achieve net zero emissions through our entire value chain by 2040. He is graduate of Waseda University in Tokyo and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.